Continuing the theme of The Road Less Traveled, I avoided the I95 and drove Route 17.  This is ironic because in my youth, when the I95 was still under construction, we’d be redirected to the 17, a two lane parking lot.  But now everyone uses the 95, so the 17 is an empty road.  It was a very pleasant drive and it only added minutes.  Got me much closer to America.

Seeing a sign for the Midway Museum brought me pause.  In my mind it’s an aircraft carrier in San Diego.  But Georgia has a fairly famous town named Midway and it has a museum.  Unfortunately closed on Sundays.

Just north of Brunswick I stopped at the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation, which was established in the early 1800s to grow rice.  The 1851 house was not the beauty that exists in Savannah, mostly because the owners had a home in Savannah for the summer social season.  (As is becoming a normal occurrence, a caretaker saw my Goldwing and spoke lovingly of the 25 years he owned one. Old age forced him to sell it.  Ominous.)   The museum has a well designed display room illustrating how rice was grown and the plight of the slaves doing the work.  The grounds has lots of room to just walk around.  Peaceful.  Just up the road is the town of Riceboro.  No rice though.

Huge bridge for 17 just south of Brunswick.  Steep.  People jogging up it, in (of course) a very strong wind.  Thousands of cars, so it’s obviously a port for imports.  One grass field had hundreds of Smartcars.

Almost got rear ended by a Greyhound bus going way way over the speed limit as I was slowing down to stop at a historical marker.

Savannah is beautiful.  The official historical site is over 2 square miles.  Intimidating, so I did the hop on hop off thing for once.  Savannah almost certainly doesn’t have more history than many other cities, but it certainly has preserved and documented that history.  Markers everywhere.  Home to many movies, such as Forest Gump.  (The Baywatch movie is actually being filmed at a nearby beach, so there is talk of where the actors are staying.  That it’s being filmed on the east coast would be a bit of a buzz-kill if I was planning to see it.)  Home to the Girl Scouts.  Center of the world for cotton.  Ghosts; lots of ghosts.  Second largest St. Patricks Day parade (Huh?).  Just an impressive list.

Drove past two paper mills.  They make skunks smell like fine perfume.  How anyone lives nearby is a mystery to me.

One of the steepest bridges I’ve ever crossed.

Midway Museum

City Hall dome. 23 caret gold. 23?

Girl Scouts founded here.

What makes this inscription fascinating is that I have a $2 bill issued by this company in 1861.

Amazing coincidence!

Interesting what one finds by just looking around.

I’m not sure why they built this way, but it had something to do with cotton storage. The stones in the walls and pavement came from ship’s ballast, unloaded when replaced by cotton.

GoPro shot

GoPro shot

A pleasing leisurely drive today.  From Orlando on I4 to I95.  Then a short jog eastward to Route A1A, which stays mostly right on the coastline. Beautiful views.  In St. Augustine I visited a Distillery and Winery.  Neither offer much serious competition to Kentucky or California.

I stopped by a friend and coworker’s house.  He hasn’t retired yet.  Happily, we talked about our private activities and future plans, NOT about work.  Next week he’ll attend an annual conference that I would normally attend also.  I’ll miss being around friends and enemies.  Not.

I had no idea the coastlines had these towers in WW2.

The coastline had many houses that looked out of place.

When this picture was taken it was both a very windy and cool. I doubt these boards ever got wet.

Fort Matanzas, south of St. Augustine.

This is a beautiful lighthouse in St Augustine. The museum is very well organized.

The caretaker’s house.

Castillo de San Marcos from the lighthouse.

The Visitors Center was excellent.  They have the space shuttle Atlanta displayed in a very imaginative position.  Everything else was great as well.  But I was there for the launch of the Space X Falcon 9 Dragon.  It went off on time without a hitch, and then successfully landed the stage 1 on a barge!  The first time it’s worked.  I obviously didn’t see the landing, but the launch was everything I could hope for.  Another bucket list item scratched off.

Bad news; my navigation system crashed.  I’m going to have to navigate without it for an indeterminate time.  Also crashed is my odometer and other electronic features.  I’ve called service centers and they are stumped, which is not a good sign. But I’ll survive.  I’ve got a good idea where I’m going.

I don’t mind saying I’ll be happy to see Florida in the rear view mirror tomorrow.  I’ve had some great times, but the driving and drivers suck.

This Gemini is the same type of missile I took a picture of at the Titan Missile Museum.

Launch control for Apollo.

Another Saturn 5 on its side. I don’t know why, but the one in Houston seemed bigger.

Apollo 14

This time I took the long way around Orlando.  Ended up at Ocala National Forest, which is just a forest.  But the ride was okay.

The town of Eustis is very nice.  Clearly enlightened town management.  Beautiful lakeside park.

Went up the Citrus Tower, built in 1956 in the center of what was then the citrus growing capital of the world.  Two major freezes in the 1980s killed the local industry, forcing it to move south.  Now the tower is in the middle of housing.  But it was still a nice view.

I learned that the first citrus bottling plant was opened in a city called “Howey-in-the-Hills”, which wins the award for weirdest named town on the entire ride.  The founder, William Howey, was quite the guy.  A predecessor of Trump.

Again, not the most remarkable of days, but better than yesterday.  Tomorrow is the payoff, weather and technology permitting.  I’ve already bought a ticket to the Space Center.  $50!

1960s.

Now.

Not True!

Drove around the “back lot” of Disney, following advice from an informed source.  Huge collection of warehouses!  Cool fire station.  Though it didn’t look like much, I saw one of the first employee housing sites for the Disney empire, which essentially gave them the ability to control the zoning rules.  Whenever the country has its 51st state, it won’t be Guam or Puerto Rico.  It’ll be Disney.

Drove through Orlando, which was a mistake.  It’s a much bigger (complex) city than I expected.  Got to Blue Springs State Park, winter home of manatees, who sadly left last week.  In the 1880s it was the hot spot in Florida.  Then Flagler built his trains.  But it’s a restful park where one can actually swim in the spring (if you bring a swimsuit).  Wildlife.

Drove back through Orlando, which put a damper on the day’s enjoyment.  Spent the rest of the day projecting my timing to St. Louis, where I’ll park the bike and fly home for a week.  I’ll hit Tail of the Dragon on the way.

Not the best day, but I’m just stalling until Friday.

A gated housing community inside the Disney grounds. Magic Kingdom indeed.

The beginning of the Springs.

Wildlife.

Best Western to Everglades NP to Motel 6 in Orlando.  80 miles in the park, 310 miles to Orlando.  Long day.  Drive sucked.  Another overturned 18 wheeler completely closed the road.  Had to use toll road ($15.40!).  That makes two overturned trucks in Florida.  Plus two close calls with motorists, both in Florida.  I’m not feeling the love from the bulk of this state.

Everglades was okay.  Not terrific.  Boat ride educational, but not worth the 2 hours it took.  The best saltwater crocodiles we saw were at the dock!  I think the key takeaway was that I don’t ever want to spend time on foot in a swamp.  But I already knew this.

Tried to use the GoPro.  Not too successful, but I’ll keep trying.

About two feet long.

About eight feet long.

This “Tree of Death” will kill you. The leaves burn your skin, the eaten fruit melts your esophagus.

They build straight roads in the swamp.

Taken with the GoPro while driving

Monday was a rest day.

Lots of cigars

I wish I knew the story of this car

My boot

Short takes first.

• Needed new boots. Key West bikers’ footwear of choice is flip-flops.  The motorcycle store doesn’t carry boots. Went to Sears.
• Wind continues to be the keynote weather issue of the trip.  Tent stakes were ripped out of the ground.  On the advice of a fellow tenter, I went to Home Depot and bought 3/8″ X 8″ nails.  Heavy and bulky, but they fit the bill. On a positive note my tent continues to excel, though I’m beginning to think it won’t survive the trip.
• The advantage of staying on a military base is cheap price.  The disadvantage is that I must ride on it fully covered.  Exit the base, strip off long pants and long sleeved shirt.  Change boots for sneakers.  (Normal speed in town is 25.)  Reverse the process to come back on.  Gets old.
• No special pricing deals for visiting multiple museums.  Seems they could work a deal among themselves.
• Because of the large number of scooters, there are lots of free scooter parking spaces.  A Goldwing is on the large size, so fit’s a tight fit.  But it’s still free.  There is no free vehicle parking.
• Driving skills seem to be frowned upon.  But at 25 MPH, one can get away with a lot.
• The bridges connecting the keys were completely rebuilt in the 80s.  Though it’s still slow, the drive is a lot less nerve-racking than in the 70s, the last time I visited.  The old bridges still stand in some places as fishing piers.  They seem unbelievably narrow by today’s standards.
• Bring money.

There are historical markers everywhere.  I visited about seven museums.  There are perhaps seven more that I passed on.  The point is that one should study all the possibilities before beginning a museum crawl.  Nearly all cost money.  In order of preference:

1. Fort Jefferson.  Absolutely not to be missed.  Expensive, but worth it. A full day 70 mile fast ferry ride to an island.  The fort is huge and swimming during the visit is welcomed.  Fun and educational.
2. Truman’s Little Whitehouse.
3. Lighthouse, Custom House, Mel Fisher’s Treasure, Oldest House (tie).
4. Hemingway’s House.  Most people love this tour.  Me, not so much.

The bars are many and essentially interchangeable, though they do vary somewhat in classiness.  The key difference is AC or not AC.  I found a really good wine bar (Grand Vin).  Sloppy Joe’s, a tourist magnet, is actually pretty good.  Many bars have a history.

I spent most of one day simply walking down Duval Street, the main drag.  Lots of shops/bars.  On that note, honestly, Key West is not a town I’d take young children to, if only because of the inappropriate t-shirts being displayed.  (I never saw anyone actually wearing the t-shirts.)

The natives are universally polite.  It’s also pretty obvious the town has a drinking problem.  I rate the city much higher than New Orleans for things to do and people to talk to. Of everywhere else in the U.S. I’ve visited, I’d compare it most closely to San Francisco.  Speaking of coincidences, I attended a performance by Huey Lewis and the News.  Great show.  He really sells it.  On a down note, they don’t seem to have any smoking restrictions, or at least they don’t follow any.

It was a fantastic week, done without much attention to the time. If I had more money I could have done a whole lot more.  In my procrastination I did fail to map out my next leg to Alaska.  But I’m definitely staying in Florida until the 8th in hopes of watching a Space X launch at Kennedy.

This is actually not true, but it’s a nice sign anyway.

There are a lot of indications of the city’s proximity to Cuba.

An odd Circle K store. The same was true for Denny’s, Starbucks, etc.

This was the name of the bar Hemingway enjoyed. But it’s not the location. Full of tourists.

The original location for the Sloppy Joe’s. This was where Hemingway drank.

Key West has a superb war memorial.

The middle school mascot.

Picture taken from the Key West Lighthouse. No longer in operation. Surrounded by landfill.

Mallory Point. At sunset, filled with vendors and tourists. Madness. No sunset is worth the crowds.

Certainly a unique scooter.

This monument is about two thirds up the keys from Key West. Oddly, Key West has no suffered a direct hit from a hurricane in recorded time.

Two pictures says it all.  Success!

My view from the Naval Station Campground.

Easter. Hot today. Humid too. Yesterday I mentioned a desire to get away from people, so today I visited the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Not only were there few people, they were encouraged to be quiet.  2.25 mile hike on an elevated path over mostly swamp.  There were some informational signs, but not nearly enough. Then again, it took me 2 hours to get around it without more signs.  It was extremely pleasant.  Pictures.

From there I went to the Cypress National Reserve Visitor Center for some education.  I was saddened to hear that there are rattlesnakes here, along with three other kinds of poisonous snakes.  But all anyone really wants to talk about are gators.  I saw two smallish dead ones along the road.

Had a crab cake sandwich at the prototypical swamp joint.  Crusty old gal telling you what do to, signs saying “If you don’t like what we’re serving, go 41 miles west or 62 miles east and get something else!”

Took a picture of the country’s smallest post office.  I saw the sign for a post office and this little hut.  I had to turn back for a closer look.

Two lane roads with crazy drivers.  One guy figured that he didn’t have to fully cross to the other side to pass me.  Road rage wanted to kick in, but what could I do?

Staying at a campground that offers swamp tours.  It looks like the tours begin next to my tent!  Bugs are out.  Before now, I camped at places that were too cold for bugs.  Now it’s not cold, so I’ve got bugs.  Can’t win.

Tomorrow Key West.

The benefits of a zoom lens.